Our response to paintings/drawings by Julie Mehretu, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Marcel Dzama

Julie Mehretu
The center rectangle draws you into the center.
It looks like everything is getting pulled into the center.
It takes a long time to see the whole.
Did she start with a map?
It is Starwarsesk - it looks like a world exploding.
It is neutral. It does not evoke strong emotion (Van Eyck's Painting is also neutral)
I do not like the picture. It looks like puke, it makes me sick, and it looks like the colors in puke.
I like the bright colors that stand out, but everything is grayed down.
It is busy, like it is always moving.
It looks like a screen saver.


Trenton Doyle Hancock
Is that a squid in the forest?
The drawing looks overlapped.
There is a feeling of transparency.
The drawing keeps drawing you back.
You want to keep looking at the details.
There are different drawing styles in one drawing.
There are smooth lines and hatched lines.
The animals all appear to be possessed. They all have red eyeballs.
The drawing is random. It may have meaning, but it may not. It does not need to have meaning. If I knew what it means it would not necessarily make me like the drawing better.
I like that it is random and that we do not know what it means.



Marcel Dzama
The drawing is weird and subjective.
The woman does not have shoes on. (St Francis does not have shoes on in Van Eyck's painting)
He might be saying something with the red, because all the other colors are muted.
The drawing is bland, except for the red tomato heads.

(click on images to enlarge)

working images 02.14.06

We voted on four colors. There was a tie between light green and dark green. The divide was intense, until we just decided to just go with five colors.

Our response to Warhol

I see the paintings as being sacrilege with intent
The emblems modernize Leonardo's painting.
Warhol says something using the emblems without spelling it out.
It looks vintage, like something you buy at a flee market.
Behind money, beauty, and technology there is faith.


59 cents = greed? Judas's ransom? red represents blood? triangle over the 59 represents the trinity?
Dove = vanity? beauty? peace? cleanliness? pink skin color?
GE = technology? light? "the light of the world?" light blue like the sky? Circular like the sun?



Maybe Warhol is saying there is more to Leonardo's Last Supper painting?
Jesus is hidden in everything?
The camouflage represents war, and the tension at the last supper table.
Judas hiding his motives and his identity.
You can see abstract figures in the camouflage.

(click on image to enlarge)

first project

Marker on 100% translucent rag paper. 8 x 10 Drawings are glued together using an acrylic medium. The finished objects read like plastic panels.

(all names will be updated soon)


Grace Scullion






Conner O’Donnell



Paul Shields


Kristopher Breault




Megan Scanlin


Charles Minnick

Working images 02.02.06

Jan Van Eyck's painting "St Francis Receiving the Stigmata"

We began our day looking at the painting - below is an initial response followed by a response after spending the entire day tracing and studying the painting. (The text is informal and intended to be read as it was spoken.)


Chrissy: Serious -sad, Brother Leo is crying, detailed everything is intricate
Rhianna: Depressing - The use of shadows, every building and every plant casts shadows
Laura: Brown, not very colorful - more detail than I expected, I though I saw a little boat
Gina: compact - intricate for its size
Paul: Why does the angel have four wings - more nature oriented than I first thought
MaryBeth: Details for its size - discovered a horse in front of the lake and reflection of the people in the water
Kelly: The feet are twisted - unexpected colors, behind Jesus is bright and colorful, in front of him is kind of brown
Charles: Boring and dull - I have more respect for the artist, for the detail and the work to get everything right
Grace: Kind of sad - more liveliness, there is more life to it - seen in the town the boat and the depictions of people living their everyday lives.
Danielle: Muted - unexpected detail, and I am sure Van Eyck was not expecting us to blow it up big hundreds of years later
Kristopher: Realistic - was amazed by the hair and the rocks
Conner: Religion, allot of it - (to be added)
Megan: Rockiness - (to be added